Posts tagged CarlLandry at FanHouse

Milwaukee has quietly ascended the Eastern ladder, sitting pretty in eighth place ahead of Chicago, Toronto and Philadelphia. The defensive turnaround Scott Skiles brought to Wisconsin has been a bit of a miracle, and deserves deep study. Skiles has used the same players Larry Krystowiak had and turned them into a top-10 defense, whereas the Bucks sat in the league's bottom third last season.

But some things never change, like Charlie Villanueva's consistent inconsistency. As always, the explosion-ready C.V. finds himself engulfed in the trade rumor circuit. Gerry Woelfel of the Racine Journal Times (via BrewHoop) offers up two dandies centered on Villanueva, one a bit more blockbluster-y than the other. The less exciting version swaps C.V. and Tyronn Lue to Oklahoma City in exchange for one of the Thunder's veteran forwards (Chris Wilcox, Nick Collison or Joe Smith).

But the interesting version lands the Bucks Carl Landry, sends Lue to the Lakers (who need a back-up point since Jordan Farmar will be out until February), and gives Villanueva to Houston. As BrewHoop notes, Landry is a Skiles player through and through (not to mention a Wisconsin native). Villanueva, while a defensive liability, fits the Rick Adelman mold well. And Lue's greatest conquests came as a ballboy for the Lakers. Win, win, win.

After tearing up the first few games of the season, including dropping an unstoppable 49 points on the Indiana Pacers, Amare Stoudemire has struggled a bit as of late. In his last two outings, he's had performances that were definitely sub-par: 11 points and nine boards against Houston, and just 12 points and five rebounds in last night's overtime win in Sacramento.

The reason for Amare's slowdown might just be more mental than physical. After the game against the Rockets, some of Stoudemire's comments would lead you to believe that he's less than impressed with some of the players that end up checking him on defense.

"You got Luis Scola, Chuck Hayes, Carl Landry ... I mean, Scola, it's his second year in the league," Stoudemire said. "Chuck Hayes and Carl Landry, you know ... they're okay players, but I definitely can dominate those guys early. Anytime. Nothing against them, they played well tonight."

Those were some long pauses between those statements from Amare, and you could tell that he was trying not to say anything too disrespectful when discussing his opponents. But it's clear he feels that there's no way those guys should be able to stop him, even though the players he mentioned are more than capable NBA defenders.

When it comes to rookie hazing, I like the NBA's approach (dancing in front of thousands of people) more so than MLB's (bending gender roles), though I think we can all agree it's better than what some high school football teams do.

The regular season can't come soon enough for Houston's second-year players. As Shane Battier explains, Luis Scola, Aaron Brooks, Carl Landry and the like will be subject to the same humiliation that Joey Dorsey is up until the moment they play their first regular season game of their second season. Of course, if you watch around the 2:45 mark, you'll see that Scola seems to be handling himself better than most.

(hat-tip: Dime and TSB)

Late off-season additions are usually either huge busts or genius steals. The Charlotte Bobcats are making a gamble right up that alley by extending an offer sheet to Rockets restricted free agent Carl Landry.

Landry was a vital part of the Rockets' epic 22-game winning streak, and became a fan favorite for his effort and surprising offensive and defensive versatility. But when the offseason came, Landry balked at previous offers by the Rockets for considerable money given his one season of production. On top of that, there were numerous reports that the Rockets had concerns about his right knee, which he's had trouble with throughout his career.

The offer is for $9 million over three years, which puts it in the range that Rockets General Manager Daryl Morey had said he would match, which the Rockets have seven days to do. When I asked Morey in July whether he thought Landry would be back with the Rockets next year, he remained impassive regarding the situation. The fact that that Rockets took so long to resolve the issue could indicate that the injury concern is enough to make Landry's value dubious.

But for a Bobcats' franchise desperately in need of a spark to lift itself out of mediocrity and possibly provide some cushion for the enormous .... ahem ... weight Sean May must carry upon his return, this could be a gamble worth taking.

"Oh, wow, Josh Childress jumped to Greece. That's wild. What a kooky thing to see. Man, what if this were to become a trend in a couple of years? How weird would that be? I mean, clearly it won't happen for a whi ... "

Oh.

Oh.

Oh.

For those of you playing our home game, that brings the list of players to have signed or be considering a jump overseas to: Josh Childress, Primoz Brezec, Carlos Delfino, Jorge Garbajosa, Carl Landry, Delonte West, and Sasha Vujacic. That's in the last week. Now clearly, it's not like there's going to be a mass exodus, this is still the NBA. Plus, as Al Horford asked Team USA about today, none of the megastars are going anywhere. But whereas after the Childress signing we asked, "could this be a trend over the next few years?", we now have to ask, "Is this a trend that's taking place now?"

It's clear that free agents, especially restricted free agents, are evaluating their options, and coming to the conclusion that Europe offers them a lot more opportunities than the NBA under the current CBA. The question now becomes how does the NBA respond? Increased agreements with international leagues for great fluidity back and forth? Higher reliance on the pitifully resourced D-League? Or the customary Stern brand of ignoring the problem until it's on fire in your yard? Is this a problem? This is a situation that's evolving faster than we can understand it, at least from where we're at right now.

Bullets Forever has a great little look at a type of player they dub "Senor Propolo" -- second-round productive low-post players. This has been a pet cause of mine since last summer, when I spent half my free time building support for the Paul Millsap Doctrine, which argued that per-minute production in the NBA was a good indicator of talent level.

BF's championing of Senor Propolo takes a slightly different tact, looking specifically at short but strong college post players who end up producing just fine thankyouverymuch at the pro level. There have been big successes in each of the past three drafts, including Leon Powe, Ronny Turiaf, Brandon Bass and Millsap (yeah!). Carl Landry's the one who sticks out to me -- in Houston's run of almost two dozen straight W's, Landry sat right up there with McGrady and Scola in terms of importance. It's easy for us to ignore the garbage-can production of the Landry sort, but when offered consistently (that's the key), it's extremely valuable.

So who are the Propolos this year? BF argues for Richard Hendrix of Alabama and D.J. White of Indiana. Joey Dorsey misses the cut because his lack of offense, but in my view, even if he lacks a key Propolo attribute, he'd be a good pick in the second round based on his defense and rebounding.

The NBA revealed it's All-Rookie Teams today, and by and large there weren't any huge surprises. But can you guess who the only unanimous choice to the first team was? If you guessed Rookie of the Year Kevin Durant ... you'd be wrong.

Actually, it was Al Horford, who finished with 29 first-place votes. Durant finished with 28. It's too bad the ballots aren't open -- I'd love to see which NBA coach actually thought Durant was no better than the sixth-best rookie this year. (Remember, coaches can't vote for their own players but aren't limited by position.) Luis Scola (26 first place votes), Al Thornton (20) and Jeff Green (15) rounded out the first team.

On the second team is Jamario Moon (12), Juan Carlos Navarro (5), Thaddeus Young (4), Rodney Stuckey (5) and Carl Landry (1). Other players receiving first place votes include Joakim Noah (1), Nick Young (2), Mike Conley (1) and Corey Brewer (1).

In another of our continuing series, five things to keep an eye out for tonight in the Rockets-Jazz game tonight.

1. Home Is Where The Last Stand Is: Let's make this clear. Yes, Utah won Games 1 and 2 in Houston. But that was the old new Houston. This is the new new Houston. With Alston back, a nothing-to-lose attitude, Tracy McGrady resembling an actual player of substance, and a rotation starting to click again, a loss tonight in Utah for the team with the best home record would be an absolute disaster for the Jazz. There seems to be a prevailing current that this is a mere formality. Maybe I'm tempered by some anti-statutory-rape feelings. Maybe I'm tired of kicking dirt on the Rockets and promptly having their hand shoot out of the ground and attack me. Or maybe it's because all season long I've had the same feeling about this Jazz team. Good. Not great. And very succeptible to a hot team. A game seven would be nightmarish pressure for the Jazz, much the same way the Rockets felt (and whithered under) pressure last year in Game 7. The Jazz have to end this, tonight.

2. Bench Evaporation: An excellent article out of the Salt Lake Tribune today brought up an excellent analysis about the Jazz bench: it's completely evaporated. Jerry Sloan is a pretty tight-reined coach. He's not going to let a lot go by. So if you're out there and you're not producing, he's going to yank you. Especially in a series as tense as this one has gotten. But if you're not playing, how do you work out of your slump? The Jazz need to be a force on the boards and on the perimeter. Paul Millsap and Kyle Korver can go a long way in that direction. They need to step it up tonight to end this.

Last night's Houston-Utah Game 5 will get little play this morning, for three reasons: 1) D'Antoni's exit is a league-rattling event; 2) Dallas's loss will lead to a league-rattling shake-up; and 3) no one cares about defense. If Tracy McGrady had dropped 49 points, or Luis Scola earned a triple double? Then we'd hear about it. But if Houston holds the league's best offense to 69 points in 90 possessions (a pro-rated offensive rating of 76.7, which is about 20 points worse than the Knicks offense), forcing the Jazz to shoot 37% from the field and 22% from three, causing 18 turnovers? We should hear about this.

Houston's defense has been unbelievable all season (it finished second in the league behind Boston); but this work is likely the Rockets' best game of the season. The Game 3 win in SLC was solid, but it didn't remind you of Houston's 22-game win streak. This one did. The offense of McGrady and Scola got the bulk of the credit for the midseason roll. In actuality, the defense sparked the streak ... and that's largely in the hands of Shane Battier (who shot 1-for-8 and was still a +12), Rafer Alston, Dikembe Mutombo, and the bench duo of Chuck Hayes and Carl Landry. (Not to diminish Mac and Scola's roles in the defense -- they do their jobs, and McGrady's man D can be downright awe-striking in moments.)

Most may shrug at Houston's Game 5 victory -- even the Associated Press game story (linked above) leads the fourth paragraph with "Now, the Jazz can end the series at home, where they went 37-4 during the regular season." What a relief, a Game 6 at home! Whew, glad we just got out of Houston alive! Earth to ... um, Earth: Houston just destroyed Utah. Let's hold off on foregone conclusions for a minute, yes?

If Houston's defense plays like that again, Utah's going down.

In another of our continuing series, five things to keep an eye out for tonight in the Rockets-Jazz Game 4 tonight.

1. Sustainable resources. Houston's one of the best offensive rebounding teams in the league; Utah is the absolutely worst on the defensive glass. In Games 1 and 3, Houston was able to exploit this for tons of second-chance opportunities -- it didn't matter in Game 1, when the Rockets couldn't hit the broadside of Charles Barkley's ass; it was the difference, however, in Game 3 as Houston earned an almost remarkable 16 o-boards in 42 opportunities. Carl Landry and Luis Scola are the culprits here; Carlos Boozer and friends need to box out much better to keep Houston's wayfaring offense from bolstering it with easy buckets.

2. Retrospective exploration. Houston's vaunted defense (second best in the league this season) has had trouble slowing down Utah's vaunted offense. The Rockets are well equipped to contain an offense with a star wing scorer or a lanky post stud. But the Jazz offense is too diverse for easy solutions, and it's showed. Even in Houston's Thursday win, Utah's offense was strong, scoring 92 points in just 82 possessions. Rafer Alston's offense in Game 3 was beautiful, but he needs to make Deron Williams look less lovely to keep Utah's offense from romping.

Three more, after the jump.